Only half of patients reported to have hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection undergo HCV RNA testing to identify current infection, according to a Vital Signs report published in the May 10 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. This current lack of identification of patients who could benefit from treatment is prompting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to update its testing guidelines to include HCV RNA reflex testing in patients with a reactive HCV antibody test. Previous CDC guidelines for HCV laboratory testing and reporting (2003) focused on identifying HCV antibody-positive persons and, therefore, reports to state and local surveillance programs have included persons with a past HCV infection that has resolved. Only HCV RNA testing can identify patients with current infection who could benefit from treatment. But according to the latest CDC data, only half of patients reported for reactive HCV antibody tests receive HCV RNA testing. Researchers analyzed surveillance data from eight U.S. reporting sites (2005 to 2011). For the sake of analysis a positive HCV RNA result could be determined from either HCV nucleic acid testing or HCV genotyping. The researchers found that of 217,755 persons with newly reported positive test results, 49.2 […]